Internet Info 1994 March/Internet Info CD-ROM (Walnut Creek) (March 1994).iso/networking/info-service/gopher/PC_server/ka9q/ReadMe

Text File | 1993-04-09 | 24.3 KB | 631 lines

-------------------------------------------------------------------
NOTE:  This software is free for University or non-commercial use.
       If you wish to use this for commercial purposes or wish to
       distribute modified versions of this software, please contact
       Phil Karn    <[e-mail]>
       Copyright (c) 1991 Phil Karn, KA9Q
-------------------------------------------------------------------

This file is a short introduction to setting up and using Ka9Q NOS
(CWRU/BIOC v1.92 - axa12) as a Mail(POP2/POP3/SMTP)and Gopher server
on a PC.  Also included are sample configuration files for my
installation of NOS.

The accompanying file (NOS192.ZIP) has been compressed with
PKZIP 2.04g
------------------------------------------------------------------
Release notes CWRU/BIOC NOS:

The version of NOS used is (CWRU/BIOC v1.92 - axa12).
This version was compiled with the following things in mind.

v1.92 (April, 1993)
After much trial and error, I finally got the POP2 server working
with the University of Minnesota POPmail/PC and POPMail/Mac
clients.  For this I thank Chris McNeil ([e-mail]) for his
help, and also Kai Getrost ([e-mail]) for sending me
his modified FINGERD.C for G1EMM NOS that gave me a couple ideas.

v1.91 (March, 1993)
Chris McNeil's Gopher server for Ka9Q added.  A *big* thank-you to
Farhad Anklesaria ([e-mail]) for helping me get
in touch with Chris, and also to Chris McNeil for very graciously
providing the code and helping to get it compiled okay.  Without
his help and assistance, this version would not be possible.

v1.86
BOOTP fixed as described by Steven Johnson to correctly recognize
a 32-bit IP address.

v1.85
BOOTP and BOOTPD support added.  BOOTP is not supported in Pa0GRI
2.0m and N1BEE 921225v0.85s-beta distribution releases.

v1.8
a) Optimized for POP3/SMTP function.  During compiling extraneous
servers like ax25, pop2, nntp etc. were left undefined.
b) Support for only the packet driver interface.  Other interfaces
such as ASY, KISS, PI, EAGLE, SCC etc. were also left undefined.
c) The base code for this version is from N1BEE v0.85s-beta, which
has a fully functional POP3 server, unlike other versions of NOS
such as WG7J 1.07b where POP3 function is broken.
d) The code for the SMTP server is from WG7J 1.07b since that
version includes the "smtp t4" command, which is very useful (see
later)
e) The SMTPSERV.C has been modified as described by Jacob DeGlopper
([e-mail]) to bounce incoming mail that is directed at
non-existent users.  Previous versions of Ka9Q do not have this
feature.
f) This version was compiled for 286 and higher computers.
g) We find that it is very stable as a mail-server
h) This version (and configuration files provided below) are to be
used with POP3 clients such as POPmail/PC and POPmail/Mac.  It is
*not* expected that any users will want to actually telnet into the
NOS mailbox and check their mail.
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Manual for CWRU/BIOC NOS:

The manual for this version of NOS is NOS_1229.MAN (for Pa0GRI 2.0m)
since N1BEE v0.85s-beta is based on Pa0GRI 2.0m (Pa0GRI 920730)

In addition, users may wish to use The NOSView online documentation
system.

These installation instructions in this file attempt to be as complete
as possible for a quick installation of CWRU/BIOC NOS.

NOTE:  The configuration files provided with in this document are
EXAMPLES.  You *must* modify them for NOS to work at your site.
-------------------------------------------------------------------
This file includes the following sections:

Hardware                 - the computer, number of users etc.
NOS Directory Structure  - the directories to create
NOS.BAT                  - the batch file to invoke NOS with
AUTOEXEC.NOS file        - the basic configuration file
POPUSERS file            - the POP2/POP3 passwords file
FTPUSERS file            - the FTP/TELNET passwords file
ALIAS                    - mail aliases and NOS
CONFIG.KBD               - configure the keyboard for NOS
GOPHER                   - configuring the Gopher server
-------------------------------------------------------------------
The Computer:

I am using NOS on a FastData 386-40 computer with 4 megs of RAM and
175 meg HD.  The computer is being used as a mail server
(POP2/POP3/SMTP), Gopher, and FTP server.  I estimate that this
computer can very easily support about 100 users receiving mail.

This version of NOS needs atleast a 286 to run on.  Based on my
experience, I would recommend that the minimum system be a 386SX
with 2 megs of RAM.  NOS performance dramatically improves with the
use of a DISK CACHE - such as SMARTDrive 4.0 from Windows 3.1.
I would recommend using a 512K - 1024K disk-cache

NOS has been installed on this computer such that users can use PC
and Macintosh POP2/3 clients (POPmail/PC and POPmail/Mac).  These
programs have been developed at the University of Minnesota and can
be obtained via anonymous FTP to boombox.micro.umn.edu

The Univ. of Minn. PC and Macintosh Gopher clients can also be obtained
from that site.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
NOS directory structure:

Create the following directories:

\NOS - the AUTOEXEC.NOS, ALIAS, POPUSERS, FTPUSERS, and
           CONFIG.KBD files reside here.
\NOS\SPOOL
\NOS\SPOOL\HELP - the help files go here (if desired)
\NOS\SPOOL\MAIL - mail messages go here
\NOS\SPOOL\MQUEUE - outgoing mail work files
\NOS\SPOOL\RQUEUE - isn't used
\NOS\SPOOL\TEMP - temporary files get created here
\NOS\FINGER - if desired, the users finger files can go here
\NOS\SPOOL\rewrite - outgoing mail addresses get re-written based on
                     the rules in this file (this is not a directory!)
\PUBLIC - files available for anonymous FTP go in this directory and
          subdirectories under it.
\GOPHER - files for the Gopher server go in this directory and it's
          subdirectories
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
NOS.BAT file:

@echo off
SET TZ=EST
SET TMP=C:\NOS\SPOOL\TEMP
cd\nos
nos -d/nos -s50 autoexec.nos
cd\
c:\nos.bat

This file essentially runs NOS in a loop.  NOS.BAT is run from
AUTOEXEC.BAT
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
AUTOEXEC.NOS

You can use the "#" to comment a line in any configuration file that
is used by NOS.  AUTOEXEC.NOS is broken into two sections below.
Section 1a - network node configuration using BOOTP
Section 1b - network node configuration without BOOTP
Section 2 - the rest of AUTOEXEC.NOS independent of configuration method
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Section 1a) -- Configuring NOS using BOOTP

# AUTOEXEC.NOS for (CWRU/BIOC v1.92 - axa12) NOS
# configured by Ashok Aiyar.
#
attach packet 0x60 pk0 5 1500  # packet driver at 0x60, 5 buffers, MTU=1500)
ifconfig pk0 broadcast 255.255.255.255
bootp pk0
host name biochemistry.cwru.edu
domain suffix cwru.edu.
domain verbose on
domain translate off     # don't turn name translation on
domain cache size 20
domain cache wait 300
domain retry 1
domain maxwait 90
#

Notes:
a) For bootp to work, you must initially set a broadcast address of
   255.255.255.255 -- the correct value is received from the BOOTP
   server.
b) I have to specify a full hostname as the name received from our
   BOOTP server is just "biochemistry".  Several others have also
   reported a problem with the node-name received during BOOTP, and
   I am working on a fix.  Also a domain suffix is not provided by
   the BOOTP server, and hence is entered here.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Section 1b) -- Configuring NOS without using BOOTP

# AUTOEXEC.NOS for (CWRU/BIOC v1.92 - axa12) NOS
# configured by Ashok Aiyar.
#
# basic host configuration
hostname biochemistry.cwru.edu
ip address 129.22.152.44
domain suffix cwru.edu.
#
# domain nameserver (DNS) configuration
domain addserver 129.22.4.1   # secondary nameserver
domain addserver 129.22.4.3   # primary nameserver
domain verbose on
domain translate off     # don't turn name translation on
domain cache size 20
domain cache wait 300
domain retry 1
domain maxwait 90
#
# host interface configuration - Cabletron card with packet driver
attach packet 0x60 pk0 5 1500  # packet driver at 0x60, 5 buffers, MTU=1500
ifconfig pk0 ipaddr 129.22.152.44 netmask 255.255.0.0 broadcast 129.22.255.255
route add default pk0 129.22.1.1
route add 129.22.0.0/16 pk0
#
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Section 2 -- The rest of AUTOEXEC.NOS - whether you use BOOTP or not

# configuring memory parameters
watch on
watchdog on
memory thresh 7168
memory efficient yes
memory ibufsize 3072
memory nibufs 10
#
# TCP/IP parameters
ip rtimer 60
ip ttl 255
tcp window 2048
tcp mss 1460
tcp irtt 10000
#
# unattended operation
attended off
mbox maxmsg 100     # each user can store upto 100 messages
mbox expert on
mbox password "password"      # password for remote sysop operation
#
# let's maintain a log!
log \nos\spool\net.log
#
# telnet client accept echo request from remote server
echo accept
#
# SMTP parameters
smtp batch no
smtp gateway po.cwru.edu
smtp maxclients 40
smtp mode route
smtp quiet yes
smtp timer 60
smtp t4 120
smtp usemx yes
smtp sendlzw off
# smtp server checks to see if there is any mail to send every 60
# seconds.  If a particular host/connection is down, then the
# "smtp t4" command causes the mail to be sent via the defined smtp
# gateway after a defined period of time in seconds (120 seconds)
# "smtp usemx" causes MX records to be used while sending.
# NOS can use lzw compression during sending/receiving mail.  To
# ensure compatibility with all SMTP servers, you should probably
# turn sendlzw off using the command "smtp sendlzw off"
#
# remote reset/exit/kick parameters
start remote
remote -s password
# If the server appears to be stuck and you want to kick/restart it,
# from a remote site using Ka9Q, the command would be
# "remote -k password biochemistry.cwru.edu kick|reset|exit"
#
# FTP client/server - binary transfer mode
ftype image
#
# start the servers
start ftp
start smtp
start echo
start discard
start pop2
start pop3
start finger
start telnet
start gopher
#
# map the keyboard
source c:\nos\config.kbd
#
# lock the console
lock password "password"      # password to unlock console with
lock      # console gets locked automatically
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
POPUSERS file - resides in \NOS directory

#POP passwords format
#user:password:
ashok:password1:
jonathan:password2:
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
ALIAS file - resides in \NOS directory

#Mail aliases can be used to forward mail, or send the same message
#to a group of users.  Three examples are shown below:
#Example 1: Mail sent to this user gets forwarded to another address
alias1         [e-mail]
#
#Example 2: Mail sent to this "user" gets forwarded to several users
alias2         ashok marty samantha david
#
#Example 3: Mail sent to this user gets forwarded to another group of users
faculty        richard martin jonathan mulchand david karen vernon
               pieter ganesh jerry bill joyce menachem
#

-------------------------------------------------------------------------
FTPUSERS file - resides in \NOS directory used

Okay, here's where the weird stuff begins.  For some reason, when I
compile NOS with Jacob's modifications to SMTPSERV.C, this file must
have the following format for all those users who use POPmail/PC or
POPmail/Mac to be able to send mail to other users within the system.

user1 user1 / 128
user2 user2 / 128

Finally, since Jacob's code causes the FTPUSERS file to be read for
incoming mail, it is imperative that every alias that is uses in the
ALIAS file also have an entry in FTPUSERS.

The format for all other users (eg. FTP etc.) is below

#FTP/TELNET access passwords format
#user password /directory_access_to protection
#some protection levels are
#1 - read access only
#3 - read/write but not delete
#7 - read/write/delete
#127 - remote sysop access
#128 - this user is banned from Telnet access to mailbox
#
examples:
ashok password1 /public 1
# read-only access to files in public directory (and subdirectories)
jonathan password2 / 7
# read/write/delete access to files everywhere (root and below)
anonymous * /bioc407 1
# no password, allowed to read files in bioc407 directory

Since, I provide anonymous and other FTP access, here is what my
file actually looks like (some portions have been excluded for
brevity).  However note that there are three sections, usernames
with FTP access, all the POP2/POP3 users, and all the aliases
defined in the ALIAS file.

-- begin FTPUSERS --
#
# [ftp-accounts]
anonymous * /public 1
ftp * /public 1
bioc password /bioc 3
root password / 127      # remote sysop access
# [mail-accounts]
ashok ashok / 128
marty marty / 128
jonathan jonathan / 128
# [aliases]
alias1 alias1 / 128
alias2 alias2 / 128
faculty faculty / 128
#
-- end FTPUSERS --
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
CONFIG.KBD - resides in \NOS directory.  Is taken as a Source file
in AUTOEXEC.NOS so that it can be altered as desired without messing
with the rest of AUTOEXEC.NOS.  More details are in NOS_1229.MAN

# mapping F1 through F4
fkey 59 "session 1\n"
fkey 60 "session 2\n"
fkey 61 "session 3\n"
fkey 62 "session 4\n"
# mapping F5 through F8; F10 is always escape to console
fkey 63 "tcp status\n"
fkey 64 "mem status\n"
fkey 65 "status\n"
fkey 66 "smtp list\n"
#
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Finger files - these are optional and go in the \NOS\FINGER
directory.  There is one file for each user and the file has the
same name as the USERS name - i.e if my machine has four users -
ASHOK, JONATHAN, DAVID, and JEANNE, I have 4 finger files in the
\NOS\FINGER directory.  These files would be:
ASHOK
JONATHAN
DAVID
JEANNE
Since I start the finger server when I load NOS, if someone was to
finger the user [e-mail], this is information that
they would see

Username: ashok                            In Real Life: Ashok Aiyar
Telephone: x3300                           Room: West 409/410

The finger file ASHOK is a plain text file that can contain any
information.  On my NOS site, the file for each user contains their
username, their "real-life" name, their office room number and their
telephone number.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
The \nos\spool\rewrite file is an important file.  This file rewrites
outgoing mail addresses as desired.  This is particularly useful, if
you want to route mail through a particular SMTP gateway.  When is
this useful.  For example, a couple weeks ago, my campus SMTP gateway
was not sending mail to BITNET sites, at which point it was useful for
me to add the following two lines to the REWRITE file.

*@*.bitnet $1%$[e-mail]
*@*.BITNET $1%$[e-mail]

This is what my rewrite file currently looks like

*@*.bitnet $1%$[e-mail]
*@*.BITNET $1%$[e-mail]
*@biochemistry $[e-mail]
*@meds38956 $[e-mail]
*@meds38956.cwru.edu $[e-mail]
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Configuring the GOPHER server:

Create a directory at the root level of your PC hard drive called
exactly "GOPHER".  This must be the same hard drive that contains the
server program: nos192.exe. The rest of these instructions assume that
the hard drive is called C:  (if not, make the necesssary substitutions
when reading this document).  The contents of the directory C:\gopher
(and any subdirectories therein) will be available to gopher clients.

Create a file in the gopher directory called "ginfo".  This file
contains a description of the items in the gopher directory.  Every
subdirectory under GOPHER that you wish to display on the Gopher
server menu must have it's own "ginfo" file.

Each line in the GINFO file describes an item.  The format of each
line is as follows:

<type><display string>TAB<type><file ident>TAB<host name>TAB<port>

Types of items:
0=text file
1=directory
2=CSO PhoneBook
3=Error
4=Macintosh Binhexed file
5=PC Binary
etc.
<type> is the gopher item type character.  Character 0 means a file,
1 indicates a directory, etc.  The <display string> is the string
that will be visible to the gopher client user.  The <file ident>
is a curious beast:  it starts with the drive name, say c:,
followed by the full path of the file starting INSIDE the gopher
directory.  The directory separators are slashes (as in UNIX)
rather than backslashes (as in messDOS).  The TAB denotes an actual
ASCII TAB character.  Many common DOS word processors strip out the
tabs and replace them with spaces; you need to leave the tabs inside.

An example ginfo file with three items (the # denotes an ASCII TAB
here and in all the other examples below):

0About this Gopher#0c:/help.txt#foo.moo.umn.edu#70
1An example directory#1c:/stuff#foo.moo.umn.edu#70
1An example link##gopher.tc.umn.edu#70

Also THE LAST LINE IN THE GINFO FILE MUST JUST CONTAIN A PERIOD
FOLLOWED by a CR OR LF.  (not shown above... but it must be there
to terminate the file).

The first item is a file (type character 0) that the user
will see as "About this Gopher".  The actual DOS full
pathname of this file is C:\gopher\help.txt.  The file
ident here is "c:/help.txt" (look at that carefully one
more time). Note that a type character precedes the file
ident, and no tab is between them.  The file lives on THIS
server, since this server's name (foo.moo.umn.edu) and port
(70 is the default gopher port) follow.

The second item is a directory (type 1) that the user will
see as "An example directory".  The actual DOS full
pathname of this directory is C:\gopher\stuff.  The file
ident here is "c:/stuff".  Again, note the type char right
before it.  This directory too, lives on THIS server as
evidenced by the local name and port.

The third item is also a directory.  The user will see
this as "An example link".  The directory is not on this
server at all; that is to say, it is a link to a directory
on another server.  In this instance, it  points to the
gopher server running on a machine called gopher.micro.umn.edu
at port 70.  Note the null selector string.

If you wish users to be able to see items inside the subdirectory
(the second item), you will also have to create a ginfo file
in the C:\gopher\stuff subdirectory.  In other words, a ginfo
file is a "gopher's view" of the contents of any directory.

For more information on gopher item type characters, links,
etc., you SHOULD browse through the short document
on the internet Gopher protocol.  This is available via
gopher or by anonymous ftp from boombox.micro.umn.edu
(look in the /pub/gopher directory tree).

I have included some the GINFO files from my Gopher server as
examples of GINFO files (some items from each GINFO file are
deleted for brevity)

---------------
C:\GOPHER\GINFO
(root directory for GOPHER)

0About this Gopher#0c:/gopher.txt#biochemistry.cwru.edu#70
1POPmail, Gopher and other TCP/IP programs#1c:/pop#biochemistry.cwru.edu#70
1Other Gophers and Information Services#1c:/gopher#biochemistry.cwru.edu#70
1Search for E-mail Addresses#1c:/whois#biochemistry.cwru.edu#70
.
---------------
C:\GOPHER\POP\GINFO
(example configuration for downloading binhexed, and binary files)

0Read Me First    0c:/pop/readme.txt#biochemistry.cwru.edu#70
4Macintosh TurboGopher 1.05 (binhex)#0c:/pop/tgoph105.hqx#biochemistry.cwru.edu#70
5PC Gopher III (pkzip)#9c:/pop/pcg3.zip#biochemistry.cwru.edu#70
5Latest POPmail/PC executable#9c:/pop/popmail.exe#biochemistry.cwru.edu#70
1Connect to BoomBox - Home of POPmail and Gopher##boombox.micro.umn.edu#70
.

Note that for download PC Binaries, to maintain open TCP connection,
a combination of item-type 5 & 9 is used.  In contrast, since Mac
Binhexed files are ASCII, a combination of 4 & 0 is used.
---------------
C:\GOPHER\GOPHER\GINFO
(examples of links to other Gophers and Telnet links)

0Read Me First#0c:/gopher/readme.txt#biochemistry.cwru.edu#70
1Mother of All Gophers @ U. of Minnesota##gopher.tc.umn.edu#70
1Other Gophers through U of M.#1/Other Gopher and Information Servers#gopher.tc.umn.edu#70
8World Wide Web##info.cern.ch#23
8University of Saskatchewan HYTELNET#hytelnet#access.usask.ca#23
.

Note that you can directly connect to a sub-menu at another Gopher
site.  For Telnet connections, the TCP port is defined.  In one case
(World Wide Web) no username is required, and in the other
(Hytelnet), the user will be prompted to use the login "hytelnet"
when the item is selected.
---------------
C:\GOPHER\WHOIS\GINFO
(example of setting up a type 7 - search item, and other links)

0Finding E-mail Addresses#0c:/whois/whois.txt#biochemistry.cwru.edu#70
7WHOIS Searches at CWRU (experimental)#whois whois.cwru.edu#gopher.nd.edu#8001
1WHOIS Searches at other institutions#1/Phone Books/WHOIS Searches#gopher.tc.umn.edu#70
8NetFind Searches (server at Univ. of Colorado, Boulder)#netfind#bruno.cs.colorado.edu#0
.

Since CWRU's WHOIS database is not directly available via Gopher but
is available on a standard whois server (port 43), I am using the
service at Univ. of Notre Dame to contact the whois server at CWRU,
and present it as a text file on a new menu.  Upon clicking on that
file, the search text is presented, and a direct connection with
CWRU's WHOIS server retrieves the appropriate information.  Yeah, I
know it's convoluted, but when I did it I thought it was kind of
neat :-)
---------------
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Using TED3.COM:

I have found TED3 to be an excellent, small ASCII editor that saves
ASCII <tabs> as <tabs> and not as spaces.  This is crucial during
the creation of a GINFO file.  WARNING: DOS EDIT will convert <tabs>
to spaces (DOS 5.0 edit and DOS 6.0 edit)

To insert an ASCII tab with TED3, just hit the <tab> key.  This is
simpler than the previously recommended EasyEdit, although the
latter is also an excellent small text editor.  One other feature of
TED3.  It doesn't impose limitations on the length of any line.  In
contrast EasyEdit appears to have a line length limitation.

NOTE:  The last line in your GINFO file must contain a period
all by itself, immediately followed by a CR or LF.

The accompanying TED3 documentation has more on TED3.  Remember
to use Binary transfer mode while getting the file TED3.ZIP
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Caveats:

The GINFO file specifies the type and selector string that
gopher clients use to retrieve files and directories located
inside the PC's gopher directory.  Naughty clients can NOT
manufacture a bogus selector string and attempt to climb outside
of the gopher directory tree, ie. the server will not let them.
In this respect, the server is secure.  However, if a file or
directory exists inside the gopher directory tree, then even
though the ginfo file does not explicitly advertise it, if a
client knows of its existence, it can manufacture a selector
string and successfully retrieve the file or directory.

We're calling it a "feature".    :-)
SO NOTE:  ANY item inside the gopher directory subtree is
          potentially available to gopher clients.  Just
          because the ginfo file does not contain it does
          not mean it is secure or inaccessible.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Acknowledgements and whom to contact:

This help file and CWRU/BIOC NOS was put together by Ashok Aiyar.
I am currently at the Department of Biochemistry, CWRU Medical
School.

The Gopher server code was generously provided by Chris McNeil
([e-mail]).  Chris was also very helpful in making sure that
everything compiled okay, and worked well.  His advice in getting
the POP2 server to work okay is also gratefully acknowledged.

Farhad Anklesaria ([e-mail]) has also been
extremely helpful at every step along the way, and his help and
advice is also mcuh appreciated.  Thanks Farhad.

Much of the Gopher documentation was culled from a document put
together by the Gopher team and Chris McNeil.

I can be reached at: <[e-mail]>

From the previous Gopher Documentation:

Bugs and/or questions may be directed to the Gopher team at:
  <[e-mail]>

We will forward any hard questions to Chris McNeil :-)
-------------------------------------------------------------------------